Photo: Kirsty Pargeter/Alamy
Jelly belly. Thunder thighs. Muffin top. When it comes to our wobbly bits, we have no shortage of derogatory terminology. Many societies tend to view fat as an inert lining that, at best, keeps us warm, or even just a nuisance that needs to be gotten rid of. But it's time to change this thinking.
Of course, there is a serious downside to having too much body fat. We know all too well that obesity is associated with numerous diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Despite this, many obese people do not experience these side effects, which is a sign that something more complicated is going on. It turns out that fat is far from passive, as we report in our cover story. page 28. Instead, it is a vital, dynamic part of the body, an organ in its own right that interacts with the brain, bones and more to help us stay healthy.
This radical rethinking of fat helps us better understand obesity—not as a moral failing, but as organ failure. This could shift the narrative away from fat shaming and accusations towards the development of more effective treatments for this disease. Indeed, efforts are now focused on finding new ways to “reprogram” faulty fat cells to restore health and perhaps even transform “unhealthy” obesity into a milder form.
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Fat is a vital, dynamic part of the body, an organ in its own right that keeps us healthy.
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The encouraging news is that this may not require drastic weight loss. Many of the benefits of modern weight loss drugs don't seem to be related to the pounds they help you shed, but rather to the improvement in fat distribution and function.
Achieving this transformation would be revolutionary not only in terms of improving health, but also in redefining what healthy body shapes look like. One downside to the runaway success of GLP-1 drugs is that they risk weakening the fat-positive movement and reviving old moral judgments about body size and self-control.
But if fat could be reprogrammed, many of us could live longer and healthier lives without obsessing over our size. A better understanding of the biology of fat and how it interacts with the rest of the body is a good start.
